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Mexican Banking-System Bailout
Is Bonanza for Opposition Leader

By

Jose De Cordoba Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Aug. 27, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

MEXICO CITY -- How best to conclude a $65 billion bailout of the Mexican banking system has become a minefield for the government here. But it is proving to be a political bonanza for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

Mr. Lopez Obrador, 44 years old, whose soft-spoken speech-making style masks his skill as a political organizer, has been barnstorming Mexico for the last month to blast government proposals for fixing the still-ailing financial system here. At the core...